Maybe advisors don’t like succession planning because it signals they won’t be around someday. Or maybe it’s because they, like most people, can’t kick the procrastination habit. Or maybe they simply can’t find the time in their busy day to properly undertake this thoughtful endeavor.

Whatever the case, the owners of financial advisory firms seem to be dragging their heels when it comes time to plan for the future of their business after they have retired or died. According to a recent report from FA Insight, fewer than half (44%) of surveyed advisory firms said they have an adequate succession plan in place. Yet the share of firms with owners who are three years or less from retirement has more than doubled in the past four years.

That said, advisors seem to be picking up the pace somewhat. According to “The 2015 FA Insight Study of Advisory Firms: People and Pay,” the seventh iteration of the Tacoma, Wash.-based consultancy’s broad-based annual look at the advisor industry, the fact that 56% of firms don’t have a plan is an improvement from four years ago, when two-thirds of them didn’t have a plan.

Talking succession is one thing; finding successors is another. After all, staffs are getting older, too. As owners of advisories age, so do lead advisors (the average age of both has reached the half-century mark, according to FA Insight). A possible solution, particularly for owners favoring internal transitions, is to boost the human capital at their firms—hire younger advisors and give them enough training to progress as professionals and attain more responsibilities.

The report says succession-prepared firms are more apt to maintain organizational structures that support internal career paths, offer individual development plans and provide access to formal training. Those firms best prepared for succession stand out for the ways they recruit, position and develop their people, the report said.

But as FA Insight also notes, larger firms have the scale to better pull this off. Firms with adequate succession plans were 52% larger in annual revenue, the report said.

FA Insight found that advisory firms were three times more likely to promote an existing employee to ownership than to bring in a new owner from outside. That’s because internal successions minimize disruptions for firms and their clients. Also, by offering ownership, firms go a long way toward retaining their top employees.

When new owners are brought on, they typically purchase shares of the firm through a financing plan. They can also pay cash up front, which is the second most common option.

There are also incentive plans that grant shares. However, the report warns, “While granting shares may alleviate the need to fund a purchase, owners sacrifice equity, and the practice may fail to promote an ‘ownership mentality’ given the ease in which shares were transferred.”